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Back to the United States in 1935, Armstrong and his orchestra played the season of '35-'36 at Connie's Inn on Broadway, made a record-breaking tour to the coast, and climaxed 1936 with his motion picture debut, with Bing Crosby in Paramount's "Pennies From Heaven."
He was immediately signed for a Paramount musical in 1937, "Artists and Models", with Jack Benny and Martha Raye, and followed that up with another picture for Paramount, "Every Day's a Holiday" with Mae West. By this time Louis had set a record for orchestra leaders in the movies--most of them make only one picture and then try to forget about it. But Armstrong had hardly started. In addition to his commercial program for Fleischmann's Yeast every Friday night, which featured his orchestra and guest stars, a concert appearance with Paul Whiteman in Carnegie Hall, and his autobiography "Swing That Music", published by Longmans Green, he was to make still another motion picture "Goin' Places" with Dick Powell for Warner Bros.

These, with his theatre, ballroom, restaurant and hotel engagements, kept him busy during '38 and '39, but it was in '40 that he scored what has been his greatest achievement to date--the role of "Bottom" in the swing version of Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream at the Center Theatre in Radio City, New York, "Swingin' the Dream." Co-featured with Benny Goodman, the musical was a triumph for Louis Armstrong from start to finish.

Louis topped his performance in "Swingin' the Dream" with a record-breaking run of 36 weeks at the Cotton Club on Broadway, then went on tour again to meet the demand for personal appearances by the orchestra which had been created all over again by his frequent broadcasts.

In the summer of 1941, Louis Armstrong experienced still another of his many triumphs, when two recording companies simultaneously released albums of Louis Armstrong records. They were Decca, for whom Louis currently records, and Columbia, one of the companies for which he formerly recorded, and which re-issued records of his which are still best-sellers.

And that's Louis Armstrong, the evergreen trumpet king of swing, with a new triumph every year, and a new set of box-office records to add to his laurels annually. The world's greatest trumpet player--so say Paul Whiteman, Rudy Vallee, Bing Crosby, Bob Ripley, Esquire and everyone else--last year, this year and next year.